PEACE-ING IT TOGETHER: BOOKS, ART, MUSIC, & DRAMA by M. L. Westmoreland-White Ira Chernus, American Nonviolence: The History of an Idea. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2004. To my surprise, no readers of these pages have yet submitted any reviews of books, plays, movies, art or music relating to gospel nonviolence and Christian peacemaking. I know you must be reading, watching, hearing, and viewing items that would make good reviews for our dialogues as we seek together to create a culture of peace. So, I encourage you to submit reviews or ideas for review to me at the feedback link below. In the meantime, you have to put up with my views on items I pick for review. I leave you to judge whether or not that is a good thing. This week we take a look at a new book by Ira Chernus. Chernus is a Jewish peacemaker and professor of religious studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Chernus teaches courses on Judaism, religion and contemporary U.S. culture (including courses on religion and politics), and religion and nonviolence. A "public citizen" and sometime political activist, Chernus engages in radio commentaries every other Thursday morning, and regularly writes op-ed pieces for national newspapers, many of which have been published on the Common Dreams website. Chernus' previous books have included Mysticism and Rabbinic Judaism (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1982); Dr. Strangegod: On the Symbolic Meaning of Nuclear Weapons (Colombia: University of South Carolina Press, 1986)--a work I found especially useful; A Shuddering Dawn: Religious Studies and the Nuclear Age (co-edited with Edward T. Linethal) (Albany: SUNY Press, 1989); & Nuclear Madness: Religion and the Psychology of the Nuclear Age (Albany: SUNY Press, 1991). American Nonviolence: The History of an Idea chronicles the development of principled nonviolence in the U.S. with a focus on the intellectual tradition more than the nuts and bolts of various nonviolent campaigns. The title is slightly misleading since Chernus does not restrict his discussion strictly to movements or people from the U.S. or the North American continent. Rather, Chernus includes those movements and individuals from all over the world that have been major influences on the development of the American nonviolent tradition. This inclusion of global figures who were major influences is very helpful, but, in a book this size, leads to some oddities such as the inclusion of Gandhi from India and Thich Nhat Hanh from Vietnam while ignoring some major homegrown figures like Cesar Chavez. Chernus begins with the Anabaptists in the 16th C. (noting that many Anabaptist-descended groups moved to America and are active today), continues through the Friends/Quakers in Britain and North America, moves through the Abolitionists, Thoreau, the Anarchists, and the impact of the First World War. From there Chernus turns to Gandhi (who was both influenced by American nonviolence--especially some Abolitionists--and made a huge impact on that nonviolence tradition), the strong critique of Reinhold Niebuhr, A. J. Muste, Dorothy Day and the Catholic Workers, Martin Luther King, Jr., Barbara Deming, and the Engaged Buddhist approach of exiled Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. The work is intended as an introductory textbook for courses on religion and nonviolence like Chernus teaches himself. It will serve this purpose well even though the chapters are une
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